This video documents the Seattle Experimental Animation Team’s participation in the Long Walk art project in July 2011. We created animated films by the side of the trail as 50 people walked past, and then installed these and other shorts in barn also along the path. This is a precursor to an exciting Flying Cinema event happening at a park near you. To be informed of this last minute event, become a fan of our Facebook page.

On Saturday July 30th, 2011, Webster Crowell, Britta Johnson, Clyde Petersen, Salise Hughes and Tess Martin trekked out to the Tolt-MacDonald Park in Carnation, WA at 9AM and decked out the inside of a barn with paper kites. At 2PM fifty Long Walk participants arrived at the barn and showed us their blisters. As the sun set it was revealed that four of the kites were actually being projected with short animations, three of which (those of Britta Johnson, Salise Hughes and Tess Martin) had actually been photographed on the walking trail the day before. Two other shorts also included on the kites were those of Clyde Petersen and Stefan Gruber. Stay tuned for more beautiful photos of the installation at night as well as a video of all the films.

This is the second kite installation (the first was up for the month of June at Arabica Lounge in Seattle) and just a precursor to Flying Cinema, an event that will happen at the last minute on a windy night and involve flying kites and projections in a park near you. Spearheaded by Webster Crowell, this is a SEAT event you won’t want to miss. Make sure to follow the SEAT blog or Facebook page to get an alert.

Webster Crowell using a slingshot to loop a long piece of string around a far rafter

Webster Crowell and Britta Johnson installing one of the four special kites - outfitted with projectors

Four SEAT animators (Webster Crowell, Britta Johnson, Salise Hughes and Tess Martin) will be creating animations along the Burke-Gilman Trail during the ‘Long Walk’ art event (July 27-31) created and led by artist Susan Robb. If you are one of the lucky 50 walkers participating this year, you will stumble upon crazy animators with cameras by the side of the road as we photograph, one frame at a time, a short animated loop inspired by the act of walking. At the end of the 3rd day of the walk you will get a chance to see the pieces as part of an installation involving kites in the Big Barn. I will be there channeling a lynx in some way, shape or form.

THE LONG WALK, led by Susan Robb, is a time-based, ”open-source”, and socially engaged art event that grew out of a collaboration with Stokley Towles as part of 4Culture’s TRAILS PROJECT. For this iteration, Susan and a group of fifty trail trampers will walk more than 45 miles along the King County Regional Trails System (RTS) in Western Washington over the course of four days – July 28th through 31st – from Puget Sound to Snoqualmie Falls. Along the route, participants will experience a shift in their sense of time, a new understanding of the local geography, and the creation of an interstitial culture.